Huelva (Spain): Defending champion P V Sindhu breezed past Slovakia's Martina Repiska 21-7, 21-9 to make a resounding start in the BWF World Championship here on Tuesday.
The fast-rising Lakshya Sen prevailed over 15th-seeded Japanese Kenta Nishimoto 22-20, 15-21, 21-18 to progress to the pre-quarterfinals along with Kidambi Srikanth who rallied to defeat Chinese Li Shi Feng 15-21, 21-18, 21-17.
In men's doubles, Satwiksairaj Rankireddy and Chirag Shetty beat Chinese Taipei's Lee Jhe-Huei and Yang Po-Hsuan 27-25, 21-17 in 43 minutes.
World No. 7 Sindhu took just 24 minutes to beat the unseeded opponent at court No. 3 of Palacio de los Deportes Carolina Marn Stadium here.
Seeded sixth in the tournament which she won in 2019 -- when it was last held -- the two-time Olympic-medallist raced to a 4-1 lead with her fine play.
Repiska tried to make a comeback with two points, but the fancied Indian did not let her go ahead, leading 11-4 at the break.
She continued her dominance and kept accumulating points to widen the lead, eventually pocketing the first game in just 10 minutes.
The script remained the same in the second game as well, with Sindhu maintaining her firm grip over the proceedings to race to a 6-0 lead in just two minutes.
Sindhu led 11-1 and she completed the formality with a dominant performance.
Sen was made to toil for his victory by the Japanese as he took one hour and 22 minutes to emerge winner.
However, the mixed doubles pairing of Saurabh Sharma and Anoushka Parikh suffered a straight-game defeat to Malaysians Tan Kian Meng and Lai Pei Jing, going down 21-8, 21-18.
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